Quotations on the * * * Chapter 10 MEANING OF FREEDOM "If Freedom Fails***" **They speak of Liberty and of the struggles and sacrifices by which Liberty was won. To all the world they proclaim the glory of a nation created not to make its leaders strong but to make its people free. And to all Americans they hold a message vital in its import, compelling in its urgency. Freedom, , is never permanently secured. By each successive generation it must be defended anew. Always its price remains eternal vigilance. Always its preservation demands faith and valor and sacrifice. And Freedom, is a peculiar trust of our nation. Here, Free Government was established; here it must be preserved. With the privileges that liberty brings comes the responsibility of upholding it. * * * But, runs a solemn assurance, in our battle to keep men free, we do not fight alone. Back of each of us is the past free life of America. Back of all of us is the spirit of the Founders which our national shrines immortalize. Washington is with us, and Jefferson and Lincoln. John Paul Jones and Anthony Wayne and Davy Crockett still uphold our arms. The men who fell at Lexington, at Gettysburg and Chateau Thierry are at our side. All who fought for freedom, all who knew the great devotion, are still our comrades and exemplars. # With such a comradeship, we cannot hesitate. With such a leadership, we cannot fail. Under such a responsibility we dare not falter. * Hold high the Light of Liberty. That is America's message to all her citizens. you That is her message to "For what avail the plow or sail, RAYMOND PITCAIRN. (Excerpts from TODAY WE ARE AMERICANS ALL. Copyright 1942.) 414536 O-57-12 LIBERTY Freedom exists only where the people take care of the government.WOODROW WILSON (1912). Liberty exists in proportion to wholesome restraint.-DANIEL WEBSTER (1847). Liberty is an old fact. It has had its heroes and its martyrs in almost every age. As I look back through the vista of centuries, I can see no end of the ranks of those who have toiled and suffered in its cause, and who wear upon their breasts its stars of the legion of honor.-EDWIN HUBBELL CHAPIN (1868). Liberty will not descend to a people, a people must raise themselves to liberty; it is a blessing that must be earned before it can be enjoyed.— CHARLES CALEB COLTON (1821). Liberty is to the collective body what health is to every individual body. Without health no pleasure can be tasted by man; without liberty, no happiness can be enjoyed by society.-HENRY ST. JOHN Bolingbroke (1735). When Freedom, from her mountain-height, Unfurled her standard to the air, She tore the azure robe of night. With streakings of the morning light; Flag of the free heart's hope and home! Thy stars have lit the welkin dome, And all thy hues were born in heaven. Forever float that standard sheet! Where breathes the foe but falls before us, With Freedom's soil beneath our feet, And Freedom's banner streaming o'er us? -JOSEPH RODMAN DRAKE (1817). Not until right is founded upon reverence will it be secure; not until duty is based upon love will it be complete; not until liberty is based on eternal principles will it be full, equal, lofty, and universal.-HENRY GILES (1875). Freedom is necessary to the scientist and inventor more even than to other men. Great ideas cannot be properly developed in an atmosphere of fear and coercion. IGOR SIKORSKY (1940). God grants liberty only to those who love it, and are always ready to guard and defend it.-DANIEL WEBSTER (1834). Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.-JOHN PHILPOT CURRAN (1808). There is only one cure for evils which newly acquired freedom produces, and that cure is freedom. When a prisoner first leaves his cell, he cannot bear the light of day, he is unable to discriminate colors, or recognize faces. The remedy is, to accustom him to the rays of the sun. The blaze of truth and liberty may at first dazzle and bewilder nations which have become half blind in the house of bondage. But let them gaze on, and they will soon be able to bear it. In a few years men learn to reason. The extreme violence of opinions subsides. Hostile theories correct each other. The scattered elements of truth cease to contend, and begin to coalesce. And, at length, a system of justice and order is educed out of the chaos. Many politicians of our time are in the habit of laying it down as a selfevident proposition, that no people ought to be free till they are fit to use their freedom. The maxim is worthy of the fool in the old story, who resolved not to go into the water till he had learned to swim. If men are to wait for liberty till they become wise and good in slavery, they may indeed wait forever. THOMAS B. MACAULEY (1850). The idea of governing by force another man, who I believe to be my equal in the sight of God, is repugnant to me. I do not want to do it. I do not want any one to govern me by any kind of force. I am a reasonable being, and I only need to be shown what is best for me, when I will take that course or do that thing simply because it is best, and so will you. I do not believe that a soul was ever forced toward anything except toward ruin. Liberty for the few is not liberty. Liberty for me and slavery for you means slavery for both.-SAMUEL M. JONES (1890). Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take, but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!-PATRICK HENRY, in a speech before the Virginia Convention in St. John's Episcopal Church, Richmond, Va. (1775). The God who gave us life, gave us liberty at the same time.-THOMAS JEFFERSON in "Summary View of the Rights of British America" (1774). I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.-THOMAS JEFFERSON in a letter (1791). I only regret that I have but one life to lose for my country.-NATHAN HALE, in a speech he made just before being hanged by the enemy as a spy (1776). Liberty and union, now and forever, one and inseparable!-DANIEL WEBSTER, in a public address (1830). Public office is a public trust.-Grover CLEVELAND (1884). The humblest citizen of all the land, when clad in the armor of a righteous cause, is stronger than all the hosts of Error.-WILLIAM JENNINGS BRYAN, in a speech at National Democratic Convention (1896). America is God's Crucible, the great Melting Pot where all the races of Europe are melting and reforming! . . . God is making the American.— ISRAEL ZANGWILL, in the play, The Melting Pot. We have been taught to regard a representative of the people as a sentinel on the watch tower of liberty.-Daniel WEBSTER, in a speech to the Senate. They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.-BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, in Historical Review of Pennsylvania. CONFESSION OF FAITH Because I am an American I believe: In fair play; in good sportsmanship; in being kind and helpful to others; in cooperating with others for the good of all; in respecting the opinions of others; in respecting the rights of others; in the right of free discussion; in settling conflicts by conference; in the dignity of work; in equal educational opportunities for all; in respecting the rights of private property; in open opportunity for the individual; in the rule of the majority; in an honest ballot; in freedom of speech; in freedom of the press; in freedom of religion; in justice for every citizen; in trial by jury; in arbitration of disputes; in orderly legal processes; in freedom from unreasonable search and seizure; in the right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances; in the right of the people peaceably to assemble; and, in the responsibility of every individual to participate in the duties of democracy.-Published by the Macmillan Co., New York. If RELIGIOUS FREEDOM you limit the search for truth and forbid men anywhere, in any way, to seek knowledge, you paralyze the vital force of truth itself.-PHILLIPS BROOKS (1835-1893). To proclaim a true and absolute soul freedom to all the people of the land impartially so that no person be forced to pray, nor pray otherwise than as his soul believeth and consenteth.-ROGER WILLIAMS (1607-1684). FREEDOM OF THE PRESS I should feel myself called upon to protect an infidel or Mohammedan paper, if assailed; or to reestablish it, if destroyed; as much as a paper designed to advocate the truths of Christianity.-Edward Beecher (1876). Give me but the liberty of the press and I will give to the minister a venal house of peers. I will give him a corrupt and servile house of commons. I will give him the full swing of the patronage of office. I will give him the whole host of ministerial influence. I will give him all the power that place can confer upon him, to purchase up submission and overawe resistance; and yet, armed with the liberty of the press, I will go forth to meet him undismayed. I will attack the mighty fabric of that mightier engine. I will shake down from its height corruption and bury it beneath the ruins of the abuses it was meant to shelter.-RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN (1810). EQUALITY By a divine paradox, wherever there is one slave there are two. So in the wonderful reciprocities of being, we can never reach the higher levels until all our fellows ascend with us. There is no true liberty for the individual except as he finds it in the liberty of all. There is no true security for the individual except as he finds it in the security of all. EDWIN MARKHAM (1902). FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by a difference of sentiments in religion appear to be deprecated. GEORGE WASHINGTON (1789). Religion, or the duty which we owe to our Creator, and the manner of discharging it, can be directed only by reason and conviction, not by force or violence; and therefore all men should enjoy the fullest toleration in the exercise of religion according to the dictates of conscience.-JAMES MADISON (1776). Do nothing to others which you would not have them do to you. Now I cannot see how, on this principle, one man is authorized to say to another, "Believe what I believe, and what you cannot, or you shall be put to death."-FRANCOIS VOLTAIRE (1765). Who can be at rest, who can enjoy anything in this world with contentment, who hath not liberty to serve God and to save his own soul according to the best light which God hath planted in him to that purpose?-JOHN MILTON (1649). |